Sonys customary launch series makes an appearance on the PS3 and teaches us a thing or two about arcade racing. by Patrick Evans

If you are reading this, and you received your PS3, then what are you doing reading when you could be playing PS3? For those poor souls who were left out in the cold, we hope to alleviate the pain by telling you that Ridge Racer 7 was a terrible title not worth the money.

Ok, are they gone? Whooo. For anyone STILL reading this, Ridge Racer 7 makes its obligatory launch appearance on the Playstation 3 and provides enough new content to keep the series fresh for fans and newcomers alike. Complaints that naysayers may have about previous titles go unanswered, however, and Ridge will fail to convert any of the realism racer fans out there.

For those people who are unfamiliar with Ridge Racing (the three twelve-year-olds who were toddlers when the original came out), allow me to introduce you to the first series for drift racing. The mechanics behind Ridge Racer are painfully simple to grasp for newcomers. To drift into a turn, simply let off the accelerator, turn into the corner, and hit the accelerator again. Your car, seemingly on rails, will ride around the turn with its back-end sliding out and tires squealing. That, my friends, is really all there is to it.

At least it would be in years past. The original Ridge Racer offered a pithy handful of courses and a very tiny amount of race cars. Of course, as the series progressed, more tracks and cars were added, but the core mechanics remained the same. For the PS3, Ridge Racer has introduced a proper career mode, complete with different car manufacturers, special event races, vehicle requirements, and Gran Prix series races abound.

The career mode adds a ton of much-needed depth to a series that would get old quickly without. In the career mode, named the Ridge State Grand Prix, players must first begin by competing in Manufacturers Trials to earn the respect of the machine manufacturers. As soon as you earn one point with a manufacturer, you are allowed to purchase from their line. The more you stay with a specific manufacturer, however, the deeper you can go into their selection and the higher grade you are given access to. Just earning the one point will get you a class 4 car, but in order to hang with the big boys in the Class 1 and 2 races, you will have to pick your poison and stick with a single car. This is an interesting idea that makes perfect sense by hasnt been implemented before in any other game that comes to memory. Since the different cars handle drifts differently, players can choose on taste alone, or choose on aesthetics if they please.